Keough: ‘I went in to get things done’

State Rep. Mark Keough walked into the 84th session of the Texas Legislature with one goal in mind: Pass laws.

Keough, the first-term Republican out of The Woodlands, said he was willing to work with whomever to do what’s best for the state and his constituency.

“That’s the reason I believe I was able to get a lot of things done,” Keough said. “I said, ‘Look, I don’t care if they’re red, green, black, blue, yellow, green. I don’t care what they look like. I don’t care if they’re Democrat or Republican, Libertarian, whatever. If it’s good legislation and it’s good for my district and it doesn’t violate my values and good for the state of Texas, I will cross those lines to have them help me.

“I don’t have a problem with that and a lot of guys do. That’s something I do a little bit different and I’m not sure everybody is happy about that, but I went there to get things done.”

Out of all the bills passed during the session, which Keough describes as “pretty outstanding,” the one he was most proud of was the state’s budget, which is the body’s only constitutionally-required law they must pass.

“I have to tell you, the work that was done on the budget, how it was done, the tax cuts that we were able to implement — all that is very exciting stuff,” he said. “I’m so proud to be a part of that. We have a $209 billion budget, which represented a 3.6 percent growth, which is really less than two percent per year. It was a 26-percent increase the previous round.”

Other bills that were signed into law Keough felt were highlights included the additional $800 million the state is pumping into the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide additional border security, including 250 new troopers and a new check station that stops vehicles leaving the country. He also notes the additional roughly $6 billion in additional funding for transportation projects the Legislature allocated through, in part, ending diversions.

However, Keough was the only Montgomery County lawmaker that was the target of a veto. Governor Greg Abbott vetoed his bill creating victim-offender mediation programs because he says it improperly adds a civil law process into criminal matters.

“I would be disingenuous if I didn’t say I was unhappy about that because it passed both the House and the Senate; that was a true bipartisan working across the aisle deal,” Keough said. “I worked on that bill, (Ruth) McClendon worked on that bill and they contacted us and said, ‘Hey, let’s work together. We like your verbiage.’

“We even clarified the verbiage with the governor as they asked questions about it before it finally went through. We had no idea he was going to veto this bill.”

Keough said even though he stands behind his bill, he trusts Abbott’s judgment.

“He has a history of thinking clearly about things and so I defer to the governor’s decision and I’m not going to bring it up again,” he said. “I look at it as it was a great learning experience for my first round.”

Over the interim, Keough will open his district office and work on what he calls “meaningful tax cuts.”

“The problem with the tax exemption to raise it from $15,000 to $25,000 is that it’s not lasting,” he said referring to a bill that increased the homestead exemption for property taxes. “What we need to do is have appraisal reform.”

At the end of the day, Keough hopes his constituents see what he’s doing as worthwhile.

“My heart is that I want to give back,” he said. “I’ve been so blessed in my life. If I die today, I’ve lived a full life and I thank God. This is an opportunity for me to tell them I love them and do my very best to finish strong.”